Robert J. Parins

Robert James Parins (August 23, 1918 – May 26, 2017) was an American judge and football executive.

Robert Parins was born on August 23, 1918, in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

He attended games in the 1920s and even helped early Packers players—Parins noted Jug Earp specifically—carry their equipment before games.

After his college graduation, Parins took a job as an insurance adjuster with Employer's Mutual of Wausau in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

He graduated from Green Bay East High School in 1936 and received a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1942.

Parins was a noted lifelong fan of the Green Bay Packers, which started during his childhood.

Parins was born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and went on to receive a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1942.

He moved back to Green Bay in 1944 and began practicing law.

He served as the Brown County, Wisconsin, district attorney from 1949 to 1950 and as a circuit court judge for the county from 1968 to 1982.

He served as the Brown County, Wisconsin, district attorney from 1949 to 1950.

In 1966, Parins was elected to the board of directors of Green Bay Packers, Inc., the non-profit organization that owns the Green Bay Packers.

He practiced law with the firm of Cohen, Parins, Cohen and Grant until 1967.

In 1968, he was elected a Wisconsin circuit court judge for the 14th Judicial Circuit, which covered Brown, Door, and Kewaunee counties.

While in this role, he lectured across the state to schools and judicial groups.

Parins was elected to the executive committee as vice president in 1979.

Two years later, in 1981, Parins assumed all of the roles and responsibilities of the presidency but still retained his vice president title.

In 1982, he was elected president of the Green Bay Packers, serving as the first full-time president in team history.

Parins served as a state circuit court judge until 1982, when he retired to serve as president of the Green Bay Packers.

In 1982, after the death of Dominic Olejniczak, Parins was formally elected president of the Packers.

Parins became the first full-time president in the Packers' history and took on the additional title of chief executive officer in 1988.

After his tenure with the Packers ended in 1989, he returned to serving as a judge in a reserve capacity.

He also handled over 1,000 mediation or arbitration cases before retiring from his legal career at the age of 88.

He would serve as president for seven years until retiring in 1989.

Parins was succeeded in the role of president by Bob Harlan.

In the early 1990s, Parins played a notable role in a case related to Jeffrey Dahmer, an American serial killer.

Outside of his legal career, Parins served in various leadership positions for the Green Bay Packers, including serving on the board of directors.

In 1993, Parins was selected to hear an appeal regarding the dismissal of police officers Joseph T. Gabrish and John Balcerzak.

The officers were originally fired for returning Konerak Sinthasomphone to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Sinthasomphone, a 14-year-old Laotian boy, was abducted by Dahmer and had been reported missing.

He escaped Dahmer the next day and was found naked, drugged, and bleeding by three black women.

The women called police and officers showed up, two being Gabrish and Balcerzak.

The officers escorted Sinthasomphone back inside Dahmer's apartment, where he convinced the officers that Sinthasomphone was his romantic partner and was drunk.

They subsequently made homophobic remarks regarding the incident.

In 1994, Parins ruled that even though the officers had made mistakes, they should not have been dismissed because they did not commit "gross negligence" in the discharge of their duties.

He ordered the officers reinstated and awarded each around US$55,000 as back pay.

The ruling was controversial, with both the family of Sinthasomphone and the Milwaukee police force disagreeing with Parins's decision.

In recognition of his accomplishments, which included the formation of the Green Bay Packers Foundation, financial improvements and facility expansion, Parins was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 1998.

Sinthasomphone became Dahmer's 13th rape and murder victim.

Parins was chosen for his experience with similar cases and due to not living in Milwaukee, where the events took place.

Parins died in 2017 at the age of 98.